Dos

This is a discussion on Dos within the Tech Board forums, part of the Community Boards category; What does DOS still do for windows? Does windows still need DOS for somethings. If so, what does windows still ...

Naturally I didn't feel inspired enough to read all the links for you, since I already slaved away for long hours under a blistering sun pressing the search button after typing four whole words! - Quzah

You. Fetch me my copy of the Wall Street Journal. You two, fight to the death - Stewie

DOS has been a pseudo-OS since 9x, when using windows, DOS was really a DOS emulator of sorts. It ran on top of windows (just a normal program) and adhered to windows rules. To access true DOS, you had to reboot and press F8 and boot to console or whatever it was called. The DOS run under windows is 32 bit, DOS that boots the computer is 16 bit and helps the windows kernel address the protedted mode address space. Im not sure on the exact interaction there, but 9x depended on true DOS to boot, nothing more. NT never did, the windows kernel is solely responsible for initializing protected mode.